Finding Our Place In God's Story

Main menu

Post navigation

From Sure to Unsure

How many followers of Jesus, over the years, have moved from the known to the unknown? How many have willingly walked away from sure things to the things they weren’t totally sure of because they had a sense that something more was going on?

I always think about Peter’s miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5:1-11. This had to be the pivotal turning point in the life of Peter and probably other disciples as well. This was when his view of Jesus moved from real respect to raw reverence. One miraculous minute with the Rabbi in his boat allowed him to realize that Jesus was in fact no mere man when he caught the mother-load of fish after a night of catching nothing!

The writer gives us explicit detail to ensure that we would not miss the significance of the amount of fish he caught. He notes that there were so many fish, that their nets began to break, their boats began to sink and they had to call in help from other fisherman to complete the catch. As a fisherman, this had to be like hitting the jackpot. I am sure Peter had to be the envy of all his peers who had been fishing all night like him. The other fishermen around were probably jealous thinking of all the money he would make at the market that day with such a catch. So imagine their surprise when Peter just walked away from it. Yep, he just left it. Verse 11 says, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” This makes me ask the question…How many followers of Jesus have left the sure things of life for the unsure things over the years? There has to be thousands. Book shelves could be filled with stories of those who have walked away from what would have been obvious opportunities to capitalize simply because they had a sense that God was somehow behind the “unsure”. I have to wonder how many of them, if any, ever regretted it? Do you think that they ever wished they had trusted God less? What an honor it would be to be counted among those someday who were guilty of trusting God too much. If only we have the courage to walk away from sure to unsure on the heels of our Savior for the hope of something more. I never want to say that I wished I would’ve trusted him more.